Grape Vine

Do you make wine, Dorjac?

Fantastic looking close-up Dorjac.

Not any more, after disastrous attempts years ago Gee. The grape harvest is very variable and the stuff needed takes up too much room.

We had a white and red grape in our others garden that rested up against a south facing stone wall and it produced enough to get two or three gallons on wine a year. The wasps seem to like the ripened grapes and so do the birds so a great deal of thought has to go into knowing when to pick them.

You can let the shoots grow until two lots of flowers are on the stem then you let two leaved grow after that then pick out the middle of the growing tip. If it's a young vine then only let it have one lot of flowers and then two leaves and pick out the growing tip. When the season has finished and you have picked the grapes then it's died back during the month of December cut everything back to the main structural stems. Red spider can be a pest on grape vines and even scale insects so keep your eyes peeled.

What a wonderful variation of colours Dorjac.

Going like a good un this year Muddy since the rains came down. Lots of good sized grapes. It would be in the kitchen by now if I didn't keep pruning off all the wandering shoots.